Piper....When I entered seminary I believed in the freedom of my will, in the sense that it was ultimately self-determining. I had not learned this from the Bible; I absorbed it from the independent, self-sufficient, self-esteeming, self-exalting air that you and I breathe every day of our lives in America. The sovereignty of God meant that he can do anything with me that I give him permission to do.
Piper says anything that he gave God permission to do… non-Calvinists do not believe that, nor is that what non-Calvinism amounts to believing. What Piper says about giving God permission, that is what a man says that has been brainwashed and led astray into the false doctrine called Calvinism.
My Master sent people to give the gospel of Jesus Christ; the message came to me; I heard, believed, and did what my Master said to do; how anyone can think that makes man somehow superior is something twisted by the devil.
To say one is in falseness to say we must obey the Master is beyond insanity. God says, "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13
"But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29
"…but now God commands all people everywhere to repent." Acts 17:30
"Repent then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, and times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Acts 3:19
"…unless you repent, you too will all perish." Luke 13:3
"Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will freely pardon." Isaiah 55:7
"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret." 2 Corinthians 7:10
"Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord…because you tore your robes and wept in My presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord." 2 Kings 22:19
With this frame of mind I entered a class on Philippians with Daniel Fuller and class on the doctrine of salvation with James Morgan.
So then Piper gets brainwashed and misled by a couple of men.
In the class on salvation we dealt head on with the doctrines of unconditional election and irresistible grace. Romans 9 was the watershed text and the one that changed my life forever. Romans 9:11-12 said, "Though they [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad – in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call – she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’"
God knows all what we will be like even before He created the world. Even before Jacob and Esau did anything good or bad, God knew what was in their hearts; God knew Esau would trade his inheritance for a bowl of soup! In addition, God knew that Jacob would fight for the inheritance. Esau is the first-born, and represents the Jews, the Jews who were chosen first to be God’s people, and a people who did the works God required them to do to be called His people.
Jacob signifies the Gentiles, the Gentiles did not work, yet they were allowed now to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. All of Romans 9 is about the first born not being the ones with the promise and inheritance. Just look at how Paul brings up first Ishmael, Abraham’s first-born, and Isaac Abraham’s second child. Calvinism does not understand what Paul is explaining, so the demons give to men doctrines to believe in instead of the truth.
And when Paul raised the question in verse 14, "Is there injustice on God's part?" He says, no, and quotes Moses (in verse 15): "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." And when he raises the question in verse 19, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" He answers in verse 21, "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use?"
God is Wisdom and Knowledge. God knows everyone’s heart. God sees and knows things that we do not know. God hardened the Jews to cut them off because of unbelief, so that the Gentiles could be grafted in. However, the Jews can be grafted back in if they do not persist in unbelief, see Romans 11:23.
Emotions run high when you feel your man-centered world crumbling around you. I met Dr. Morgan in the hall one day. After a few minutes of heated argument about the freedom of my will, I held a pen in front of his face and dropped it to the floor. Then I said, with not as much respect as a student ought to have, "I [!] dropped it." Somehow that was supposed to prove that my choice to drop the pen was not governed by anything but my sovereign self.
But thanks be to God’s mercy and patience, at the end of the semester I wrote in my blue book for the final exam, "Romans 9 is like a tiger going about devouring free-willers like me." That was the end of my love affair with human autonomy and the ultimate self-determination of my will. My worldview simply could not stand against the scriptures, especially Romans 9. And it was the beginning of a lifelong passion to see and savor the supremacy of God in absolutely everything.
Piper spent a semester being manipulated to believe in a twisted mess. That is the story of Calvinists, to be manipulated in to believing a twisted mess. Many people believe they are saved, and had no difficulty getting to that place where they believed they were saved, without even knowing about Calvinism, yet Calvinism is some mind-blowing revelation people think they get sometimes years later. What does that tell you?
What caught my attention was the parts I emboldened. I believe Calvinism could be God's way of snapping those Christians out of self-centerness who otherwise could not learn to be God centered any other way. Just something to think about. Notice how John Piper described his life before embracing Calvinism. Personally, I live my life as John does, God centered, yet I did not need Calvinism to do so.
Just a thought!
How you could possibly think that it is God centered no longer to believe that Jesus died for all men, as the scriptures say, is to be centered to go against the Word of God.
